Dr. Joshua Otaigbe joined Southern Miss in 2002 after a successful career of eight years at Iowa State University where he was a tenured faculty member in both the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. He was the leader of the Polymers and Composite Research Group. Before joining Iowa State, he worked as a Project Leader for Corning Incorporated in New York. Earlier, he held academic positions at the University of Alberta, Canada, and University of Benin in Nigeria. Dr. Otaigbe earned his B.S. in industrial chemistry (1979) in Nigeria and his Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering (1984) from the University of Manchester (UMIST), England. Dr. Otaigbe is a registered professional engineer and scientist.

In 2002, Dr. Otaigbe was elected a Fellow of the United Kingdom Institute of Materials for contributions of international significance to the polymer and composite materials field. This is the highest honor bestowed upon professional members of this international science and engineering institute. He is also a Senior Member of Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) and in 2001, he was elected to the SPE Board of Directors, EPSDIV. Dr. Otaigbe was awarded a visiting professorship for summer 2003 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH-Zurich) in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2005, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers and cited for contributions in the area of blending polymer/inorganic melts to form novel composite materials, the development of a process to fine tune the refractive index of polymer blends, and for work in the area of the rheology and dynamics of polyphosphate glass melts.

Dr. Otaigbe’s research emphasis is polymer engineering and materials science. It blends chemical engineering sciences with materials structure and property principles to understand and improve processes for advanced materials. His current research interests are in all aspects of structure and rheo-mechanical properties of polymers and composites, and he has earned a reputation as a pioneering researcher in the field. He is also actively involved in university-industry partnerships to solve industrially relevant problems. These problems are often at the boundaries between established disciplines or in areas combining many disciplines that may ultimately lead to discovery. Through careful mentoring, he is empowering young engineers to develop the discipline to continue learning, and encouraging them to take creativity excursions outside the imagined constraints of their specialized areas that may ultimately lead them to the most exciting opportunities for the future.

Dr. Otaigbe received the prestigious U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award and the Best Paper-Polyolefins Award from the Thermoplastic Materials and Foams Division of the SPE. He was listed as an honored member in Who's Who of American Inventors (1998-1999 edition). He has published in over 90 journals, is the co-author of the 2001 textbook “Polymer Physics and Engineering,” and is the recipient of 7 U.S. and European patents.

Dr. Sergei Nazarenko joined Southern Miss as an Assistant Professor in January 2004. His research emphasis is investigating the fundamental roles of polymer structure and superstructure on sorption and diffusion of small molecules in polymers and polymer-based composites, and the development of advanced materials for high barrier packaging, coating, gas/vapor separation, and drug delivery applications. He has significant contributions in other areas including the mechanics and fracture mechanics of polymers and composites, electrical percolation, polymer crystallization, glassy state, molecular mobility and relaxation phenomena; blend miscibility and interdiffusion, positron annihilation life time spectroscopy of polymers, and the development of responsive materials and nanocomposites.

Dr. Nazarenko received his B.Sc. from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1988 which is regarded as the MIT of Russia. His graduate research was conducted in the Institute of Chemical Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In1990, Dr. Nazarenko moved to the U.S. and joined the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University where he first served as Senior Research Associate and then was promoted to Assistant Professor.

Dr. Nazarenko has established a national and international reputation in his field of research. He has numerous publications in the most prestigious polymer journals. In 1998, he received the 3M Faculty Award. In 2002, his research on probing the glassy and crystalline state of polymers using gas transport was selected as one of the highlights of the NSF Division of Materials Research. The European Discussion Meeting on Polymer Physics at the University of Freiburg in Germany last October is one of the numerous invitations he has received to present his research. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Society of Plastic Engineers, and North-American Membrane Society.

Dr. Sarah Morgan joined The University of Southern Mississippi as Assistant Professor of Polymer Science in November of 2002 after a 14-year career in industrial research and development. She was employed at GE Plastics from 1989 to 2002 where she held positions in R&D and technical management at GE locations around the world. At GE, her work involved engineering thermoplastics and blends, with experience in all GEP product lines, including polycarbonate, PC/ABS, ASA, polyphenylene ether, polymer blends, additives, flame retardants, colorants and weatherable polymers. Most recently, she was Global Technology Manager for NORYL? Resins and Global Sourcing Quality Leader at GEP Headquarters, where she obtained Master Black Belt certification in Six Sigma. Prior to joining GE, Dr. Morgan was employed at AT&T Bell Laboratories in R & D of coatings materials for fiber optic applications.

Dr. Morgan currently serves as Education Outreach Director for the NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Center in Response-Driven Polymeric Films and as Associate Director for the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in Coatings at the School of Polymers and High Performance Materials. She is co-director of the NSF-sponsored Nanoprobe Instrumentation Cluster at Southern Miss. She is active in industrial partnership research, and has received two NSF SBIR/STTR awards for high performance polymer research with a local high-tech industry. Dr. Morgan is active in recruiting and outreach to K-16 schools, including summer research experience for teachers and students, summer science camp, and field trip programs to our Center. She obtained a B.A. from Rice University and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science from The University of Southern Mississippi in 1988, where she was the recipient of a National Sea Grant Fellowship. Dr. Morgan’s current research interests include high performance materials, inorganic/organic nanocomposites, nanomechanical and nanoindentation analysis techniques, polymer processing, and rheology.

Dr. James Rawlins is an Assistant Professor, joining the faculty in August 2004, and directs the Thames-Rawlins Research Group. He earned his B.S. degree in polymer science in 1993 and his Ph.D. in polymer science and engineering in 1999, both from Southern Miss, under the direction of Dr. Thames. He was the technical marketing manager of Powder Coatings Raw Materials to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for Bayer Material Science. Before his overseas assignment, he was a senior research chemist for Bayer Corporation’s Coatings and Colorants Division in Pittsburgh, PA. Immediately upon graduation, Dr. Rawlins worked at Highland International, Inc. in Boone, NC as their technical director.

His research interests include polymer science and engineering, polymer design for thermosetting systems, polymer-coated surfaces, polymer interpenetrating networks, compatible and incompatible blending in crosslinked polymer systems, forensic analysis of polymers, coatings, adhesives, fibers, and films, structure property-relationships with crosslinked polymer systems, raw material development from natural and renewable resources, chemical and biological agent permeability with crosslinked systems, embedded raw material delivery, and intelligent and responsive polymer systems.

Dr. Rawlins lives in Petal with his wife, Monica, and two children, Wesley, age 5 and Alexandria, age 4.

 

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